"The Road" winds it's way up from the airport through Hells Gate (Or Zions Gate if you prefer) to English Quarter and Windwardside which is the main settlement. The only other significant place is "The Bottom". It houses the "University of Saba Medical School" and it is a privately owned hospital and medical school that has been in business for over 20 years. There are about 400 students at any one time and the school has international credentials.
We stayed in Windwardside at the Cottage Club Hotel http://www.cottage-club.com/ which I found on the Saba Tourism website. Windwardside is about 3 miles from the airport and sits at about 1500 ft (480m) above the sea, and our room was one of 10 cottages and we were lucky to get one of the two that basically hang over the edge of the cliff.
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| Our deck and the view to the ocean. Good coffee too |
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| View from our room looking down the hill to the ocean. It was cloudy due to the after effects of Hurricane Tomas |
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| Windwardside Church and cemetery |
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| Police station and Immigration office!! |
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| Our Cottage on Saba |
There is a veranda and you can stand there and look down a VERY steep hill to the rocky shore line about 1/2-3/4 mile away.
Each cottage has two double beds, a small kitchen with stove and refrigerator, and an adequate bathroom. The only limitation was the water pressure, and we soon learned that water was a very precious commodity on the island and all houses have their own cistern to collect rainwater as this is the primary source of water on the island.
We arrived in grand style in a taxi that the hotel had ordered for us and our driver Donna was to be our guide for the next few days. 4 of the rooms are occupied by the Dutch Police who are on a temporary assignment for the change in status already mentioned. saba is a "special municipality" and appears to have all the benefits of being a Dutch city. Not a bad deal.
Our hosts were Ina and Christos. She is German and he is Greek but from the north of England. They were very keen for us to get some idea of what to see on the island and also to find somewhere to eat. Not all of the places are open every day so a reservation and a strategy is a good idea, even when the places are a 5 minute walk away.
We elected to try "The Swinging Door" as they have a BBQ steak special on Sundays and it was a simple choice. No great fanfare just good simple food and a couple of beers (Presidente or Carib seems to be most popular). We talked at the bar with a local lady who was enjoying a beer and discovered that she had a restaurant "Lollipops" over nearer to The Bottom. We discovered the next morning that she also ran the local bakery (we saw her delivering bread to a couple of different locations). This appears to be typical Saba.If you take out the student population (400) there are 1100 or so permanent residents and like it or not your neighbors, and everyone else is going to know what is happening in your life. You cam call it a close knit community or oppressive depending on your take. For a visitor for a few days it certainly made it friendly!
We decided to take a walk to The Bottom on Monday and it is about 2 miles or so. We walked along the undulating road and had to be constantly vigilant of the traffic. The road has a wall on one or both sides about 12 in (30cm) tall and it was good to sit on or stand on when the traffic passed.
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| View from the road to The Bottom |
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| View from the road to The Bottom |
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| Looking back towards Windwardside. You can just see some of the houses on Booby Hill |
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| A view of "The Road" |
Spectacular scenery and views of the ocean as well as wild goats who roam the island. There is a school complex at the summit of the hill about 1/2 way and there were school buses (short buses due to the roads) and then over the top and down to The Bottom
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| School bus Saba style |
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| The Bottom. Home of the Medical School seen lower center of the photo. Also the Admin Center for the island |
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| Better view of Med School |
We had arranged to meet Donna the Taxi in The Bottom around 1.30 for a (by necessity) short tour of the island. We wanted, among other things to go down to Wells Bay and the road down there is extremely steep and curvy, so 1st gear all the way.
There is a small beach at Wells Bay and depending on recent hurricane activity it can be very rocky (as it was for us) or a pleasant sandy beach.
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| Th road to Wells Bay and a view of Diamond Rock |
There is a view out to Diamond Rock about 1/2 a mile off shore and about 75ft (25m) tall. There is a little BBQ grill down there and it would be a great place to go hang out and watch, what I suspect would be spectacular sunsets.
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| The road down. Note the rocks on the road. A constant hazard |
I am discovering that Candida has a natural affinity for water and it takes almost no excuse for her to take her shoes or boots off and jump in.
More about this later as we had a scary moment the next day.
After a brief look around the rest of The Bottom we headed down to the port area and the only place on the island where it is possible to land a boat. It is also the location of the power station for the island and I am happy to report that they are all Cat generators that provide the electrical power.
The islands one and only gas station is located here (actually someone just opened a second station on the other end of the island but we never saw it). The fuel barge was making a delivery and it has to stand off about 100 yards (95m) and there is a 6 in (15cm) hose that floats on the water that makes the delivery.
We made our way back to the hotel after a brief visit to a pretty church in The Bottom that was decorated by a local painter. The church was built in 1935 I recall.
We also discovered that credit cards are not taken at all places (like the Swinging Door) but also discovered to my concern that the bank (note singular) in Windwardside was not functioning as the main branch in Curacao was flooded. So down to the last few $$ cash and no means of replenishing !!. We were able to work it out but nobody seemed stressed by it. When I had tried to pay for dinner the previous evening with the card and was told they did not take them they then said "No worries, just bring us the money tomorrow" Cool. I bet they know all the people at the airport and on the ferry and you will not make it out of the place without paying !!
We also stopped in to the grocery store and bought a few items and I was surprised that things were not as expensive as I had imagined they would be. Gas is about $3.00 a gallon.
We chilled out for a while and had dinner at Brigadoons. Good food once it arrived. There was a mix up between us getting a drinks order in and them then forgetting to come get our dinner order.
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| Dinner at Brigadoons. I think that is still the menu in front of me! |
Oh well, we were on "island time" by then.
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